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Firebreaks—areas where fuels are removed—are widely implemented to reduce wildfire spread and support suppression efforts. Despite their global use, concerns remain about their effectiveness, particularly under extreme fire weather, and the ecological trade-…
Mature and old-growth forests (MOG) provide essential ecosystem services, yet they face increasing threats. Currently, high-intensity, high-severity wildfires are the main driver for loss of MOG on federally managed forests across the United States. Quantifying MOG forests with greatest exposure…
Background
Effective forest fuel reduction treatments reduce hazardous fuel conditions, wildfire behavior and severity. It has been suggested and partially quantitatively analyzed that these treatments may also reduce future wildfire emissions, but this potential is…
This study investigates the key drivers influencing prescribed fire effects across 16 sites in northern and central California, with particular emphasis on how operational decisions by fire practitioners shape burn outcomes. Data from the California Prescribed Fire Monitoring Program revealed…
Wildland fuels are fundamental variables in modeled predictions of fire behavior and effects. In forest ecosystems, accumulated forest floor layers, including recently fallen litter and highly decomposed organic material (i.e., duff), often constitute most…
In historically frequent fire forests, wildfires are burning larger areas and driving forest loss across western North America, yet they also produce extensive low- to moderate-severity effects that can be leveraged to harden landscapes against future high-severity fire. Here, we operationalize…
Reducing fuel densities is the primary tool available to improve forest resilience to intensifying disturbance, but implementation is constrained by concern of effects to mature-forest associated species, such as spotted owls (Strix occidentalis). While the negative effects of severe…
The stability of seasonally dry Western mixed-conifer forests is threatened by the history of fire suppression, logging, and now increasing climate-driven aridity. Durable aboveground carbon storage in living trees–a key ecosystem service of these fire-adapted forests–is at risk due to the…
Managers grappling with questions about dead wood in productive, often high-volume, westside Pacific Northwest forests seek to balance wildlife habitat quality and fire hazard reduction, especially following wildfires which can both consume and generate exceptional quantities of dead wood.…
Background
Prevailing American wildland fire modelling systems fail to predict fire growth in urban areas due to the absence of burnable urban fuels.
Aims
This research aims to identify fuel models that optimise fire spread in urban areas…